


In a Century

by honestgrins



Series: Empty Promises [8]
Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: KCWeek18
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-08
Updated: 2018-09-08
Packaged: 2019-07-08 13:25:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15931343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/honestgrins/pseuds/honestgrins
Summary: Klaus tempted her to show up at his door in a year or a century, but 117-year-old Caroline doesn't exactly have that opportunity anymore.





	In a Century

She walked down the Parisian street, the scent of fresh bread just barely winning over the murkier odor of the Seine. Taking a deep breath, Caroline let it out with a light sigh. It was a good day.

Her hundredth birthday was a fanfare celebrated with great-grandchildren, Bennett descendants and supernatural friends she’d picked up over the years. At 117, though, she couldn’t resist a melancholy solitude as the anniversary of her transition came and went. A century of blood and restraint and she didn’t want to note the occasion with anyone in particular.

Well, that wasn’t entirely true.

A few friends had called, reaching triple digits something of an achievement among the younger vampire crowd she’d fell in with during a decade’s tour through Latin America. The last Gilbert-Salvatore left a message, once again inviting her out to the boarding school as visiting faculty, an invitation she was wont to accept on occasion. Mystic Falls might have fallen victim to the changing times like anywhere else, but it never failed to feel like home to her.  _Home_  wasn’t the feeling she was looking for, though.

It was a nice bottle of champagne sitting on her beachfront porch in Greece that had spurred her quick jaunt to France. There was no mystery to the gift; Rebekah Mikaelson could hardly be described using any form of the word ‘subtle.’ Now an aging woman chasing around teenagers of her own, the utter humanness of her hand-crafted card still held a hint of glamour Caroline associated with the Originals.

Original, she should say, as Rebekah was the last one standing. Although she was the one to send a gift, it was another Mikaelson that Caroline was thinking of as she ducked into a boulangerie for a pastry.

The day she would have turned eighteen, Klaus saved her from dying a second, more permanent death. He had promised her a hundred more birthdays if she wanted them, and she couldn’t help but wonder what he might think of the Caroline she had become. Surviving everyone she had known and loved during that first, mortal life changed her.

She desperately searched for purpose, especially once Lizzie passed away. Josie had clung to her at the funeral, her daughter looking more like her grandmother. It was a devastating truth she had yet to reckon with, that Josie was aging every day and she would lose her, too. Orphan, widow, then a mother without children. Even thirty years since that final loss, Caroline couldn’t bear to look at the scrapbooks she’d taken great pains to fill during their childhood. The past just  _hurt_  in a way that forced Caroline to live in the present, to enjoy each day as it came.

No matter how much she tried to move on, however, she felt a need to honor those that help to shape her. All the people she once loved in some fashion or another carried on in little habits that kept their memory alive in less painful moments. She kept diaries like Stefan, to process her life and put it in perspective. Tyler wanted to be free, to live life on his terms. Enzo took none of it for granted. Bonnie learned to be her own champion, Elena built up others. Long gone, yet outlasted most, Matt was a reminder to appreciate humanity and the struggle of living well. 

In more practical terms, Klaus found a way to profit from his hobbies; Rebekah made sure to look fabulous doing it. Katherine was a survivor, turned  _her_  into a survivor through a gauntlet of Hellmouth proportions.

But as she ate a buttery croissant over a crossword, rapid French conversation flowing around her, Caroline missed her mom most of all. Despite all the personality quirks she hoarded from lost friends and enemies, her mom would want her to remember who she was and to remain true to herself. It wasn’t always easy; it actually grew more difficult as she felt a greater disconnect from the human life she’d once held dear. But she tried, and wasn’t that Caroline Forbes at her core?

Smiling, Caroline abandoned her paper and started to head back to the apartment she kept in town. She pulled out her phone, tapping a familiar contact to return an earlier call. “Hey, Hope, I’m feeling nostalgic. Let’s meet in Tokyo. I can tell you all about the grand promises your dad once made to a baby vampire.”

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to all who've supported this series, I only wish we could have had better canon to satisfy our hurts. At the very least, we'll always have fanon. <3


End file.
